Genesis 6:10

And Noah begat three sons.

It is said of Enoch, "he walked with God three hundred years, after he begat Methuselah and begat sons and daughters;" the same in substance is affirmed of Noah.. life of celibacy was not necessary to the perfection of the two most exalted saints of the primitive world. The three sons of Noah are first named in chap. 5:22, and were born somewhere about the five hundredth year of Noah's life. Ham was the youngest son (Genesis 9:24); Japheth is supposed to have been the oldest, born when Noah was five hundred years old, and Shem when Noah was in his five hundred and third year (Genesis 11:10). The latter, named first, as the ancestor of the Jews and of Christ, was ninety-eight years old at the Flood. From these three sons spring three great divisions of the human race.